I should stick to storytelling of course, but recently there have been two art exhibitions with a Call to Artists that elicited images in my mind... and so I put them to paper. I include them here, so I can move on...
"Nizhoni No More" -- Nizhoni means beautiful in Navajo...
This is the image I saw in my mind as I read the call for art which protests the proposed construction of yet another (and the largest) coal-fired power plant here in the Four Corners. I chose to depict a Navajo rug from the Beautiful Way, being obliterated by the pollution from the operation of the plant. Thus the ancient wisdom traditions are also obliterated by greed.
"Welcome In"
I had already painted this, and when I read of an upcoming "Sacred Arts Festival," I decided to submit it. The image I was trying to express was that of coming abundance -- the ephemeral approaching camels taking solid form as they pass through the shimmering yantra of abundance. A friend pointed out that the imagery is also Christian -- the Three Kings passing through the Star of David and taking solid form. This downloaded photo barely shows the Star of David which is at the center of the yantra.
